Various receptacle terminals are known for connecting an electrical component to conductor strips on a circuit board.
One problem has been the height of such receptacles and the manner in which they are assembled to circuit boards and wave soldered thereon.
Receptacle terminals have been used in the past, in one case shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,699,495 granted to Terence Robert Raynor Oct. 17, 1972; the receptacle '495 patent has spring contacts thereon that extend axially outwardly of the body of the receptacle in a manner that increases the height of the receptacle. Furthermore, the receptacle terminal of the Raynor patent has two parts, one of which is a molded plastic body part around which an electrical contact strip is fastened. Such design requires additional manufacturing and assembly steps.
An example of a single piece metal receptacle terminal is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 4,797,110 granted to Richard L. Ponziani, William E. Davies and Everett P. Trittachuh III, Jan. 10, 1989 assigned commonly to the assignee of the present application. The receptacle terminal in the Ponziani et al patent while suitable for its intended purpose is not configured to be located on the component side of a circuit board that is wave soldered to electrically connect the components on one side of the board to conductor strips located on the solder bath side of the circuit board. Furthermore, the height of the receptacle terminal is too great for use with certain components such as instrument gage housings supported on the component side of circuit boards used in instrument panels for motor vehicles and the like.
Other receptacle terminals have been used by the assignee of the present invention, including those with a lock tab head portion with spring contacts located generally vertically within the head portion and with solder tabs on the outside of the head portion. In such cases, a lock tab is crimped to form the head portion. The solder tabs are crimped to connect the head portion to a circuit board so that the receptacle terminal can be electrically connected by wave soldering to conductor strips on the non-component side of the circuit board. Furthermore, such vertically disposed spring contacts have a sharp radius and a limited lateral clearance such that exposed electrical winding components can be electrically shorted against the receptacle when conductor pins thereon are inserted therein.
It is desirable that such receptacle terminals be simple in form and assembled without plural assembly steps such as required in two piece and lock tab constructions of the prior art. Furthermore, such receptacle terminals should be configured to enable them to be assembled in connector openings within a circuit board by use of automatic assembling equipment and by use of known solder bath techniques. Still further, it is desirable to provide an easily assembled, low cost receptacle terminal that will not short out electrical components connected thereto.